What is that intake? It's beautiful! What Motor is it on? Is there a benefit other than it being gorgeous?

 

I've just finished a dual exhaust setup on my 90 L98. I don't really have the setup to make my own bracket, but I'm really handy with a good set of tools. I'd like to get the pully that is better quality. I've found that more expensive doesn't necessarily mean better quality thus I ask, does anyone know which kit is the better kit? OR, Should I buy a particular kit and replace the bearing? I'm married to a 100% Polish lady so she'll be happy to know that Polish bearings can be used.

 

Accel Super Ram intake
Late 86 L98
More top end power vs TPI

 

I still haven't completely replaced this thing. I have pulled it off again a time or two.
The Polish bearing is holding up better but the last time I popped the seal off it was about empty of grease.
I re-packed it with red Mobil 1 synthetic and it seems to be hanging in there. I also secured the bearing in the pulley
bore with Loctite 620 as I swear the outer shell is rotating in the pulley at times. It is also bordering on impossible to
install the bearing in the pulley and secure it with the lock ring as they intended without there being some slop in it. I made some
shims to snug it up and still be able to get the lock ring in the groove but it's a dumb way to do it.

More importantly, I replaced the whole stupid ill thought out pulley.
Through some trial and error since none of the quoted measurements from the
manufacturer seem to be accurate for some reason, Gates 36157 seems to be virtually
identical in size to the supplied pulley with the kit and is proudly made in Canada.
I machined a new adaptor instead of pressing the one that came with the kit out of the
original pulley bearing as I wanted to keep it as a spare and I do not know if the original will space
the Gates one correctly as I just made one to suit. What I also do not know, and wonder if isn't an issue,
is the amount of heat transferred from the head through the aluminum bracket to the pulley.
I have observed that every other pulley on the motor you can tolerably touch and hold right off
a highway drive except for the bypass idler pulley, it is about as hot as the head. That is still within
the operating range of an EDPM rubber serpentine belt (though on the upper side of acceptable) from what I gather
but I suspect it's hard on the bearing. Time will tell how the gates pulley holds up. I originally bought a Dorman
of the same compatible part number/size but in a plastic pulley thinking it might not transfer as much heat to the
belt but for some unknown reason it made a heck of a loud rapid clicking noise in use so I returned it and
bought the gates which thus far seems fine. And is metal. I'm going to keep a suspicious eye on this setup
for the foreseeable future, I don't know that home-rolling a bracket vs buying one is gaining anything with the heat
transfer as metal bolted to metal is metal bolted to metal. The air pump had air flowing through it and a lot more surface area
to dissipate heat so this may (or may not) continue to be an issue. I'm a lot more confident in the Gates pulley though.
Oh, and on my z51 MT 86 a K060864 belt puts the tensioner in a happy spot. There are also errors in Gates belt
catalog about the length of them but it was pretty easy to see where they messed up.

 

So who has one that they like?

 

Not that I've heard, other than home made ones. I suspect the home built ones are better because they use a real purpose built idle pulley instead of the goofball one these kits seem to come with.
I strongly suspect my issues are over now that I found a grown-up pulley that fits this aftermarket bracket.

 

Yeah, I hate to bitch about it, but I ended up buying a kit (haven't installed it yet), which basically looks like someone made it out of chrome plated tinker-toys. Does no one make something that at least attempts to look like it came from the factory that way?

I get wanting to show off upgrades and stuff, but with all the kits I see, it makes it look like there's a huge thing missing from the engine compartment. And they all have chrome-plated pulleys as well.

I'd love to see something that's less ridiculous looking, and uses an actual GM idler pulley.

 

Far as I know you've got to make your own for that. You could powdercoat or paint the shiny brackets probably and use an OE pulley like I finally did.

 

Hey AGENT86, it's my first post here. I think this bracket you made it awesome, I wanted to try making one for myself.
Do you have more dimensions for the main bracket? I am struggling with not enough constraints. I'm a bit of a novice with this CAD stuff but those two holes I circled don't seem to have enough constrains to fully set them in place.
The only other way I can think to get those dimensions is to physically measure them and I don't really know how I would accurately do that.
I just put the outline of the main bracket in the background for visuals, it's not actually there.

Thanks!

 

Shutup and take my money. Seriously, how much to make one and ship to me?

 

What’s the advantage of removing it

 

In my case not so much the pump but decluttering the engine bay by removing all the stuff that went with it.
And guys with headers by and large have nowhere for it to pump air into as well.
In hindsight I think I'd have de-vaned the pump and left it on there for all the trouble it's been.

 

Oh... dude...

My daughter went to go change the spark plugs, and we couldn't even get to them with all that "****" on the exhaust manifolds. What was a normal tune up, turned into completely stripping the engine down to a bare long-block, and gutting it of anything that smelled like a smog system. This is where we are now... haven't put the wiring yet but we had to replace all of the fusible links and connector ends... but the engine compartment already looks 100x better without all the smog piping and tubing going everywhere.



Granted, we haven't put the distributor back or the plug wires back... but the engine compartment looks night and day less cluttered. You can actually reach your hand in there.


From a performance perspective... everything from the tubes protruding down into the exhaust manifold, to the smog pump's parasitic drag on the belt system (and crank), there really is horsepower and efficiency to be gained by eliminating the smog pump. Removing the smog pump (based on Corvette forum searches) yields about 3-4 horsepower, and grinding out and welding the AIR injection tubes that protrude into the exhaust ports gives you another ~5 horsepower. So, removing everything smog-related probably gives you about 5-10 horsepower.

I'm leaving the EGR system though, because it helps cool the motor, the computer expects it, and it's completely closed when accelerating even slightly hard.